Similar Books You May Be Interested In...

A Ride Over the Rocky Mountains to Oregon and California. With a glance at some of the Tropical Islands, The West Indies and the Sandwich Islands.

$280.00

Book Details

Author: Coke, The Hon. Henry J.

Illustrator:

Reference #: 1513

Status: For Sale

List Price: $280.00

London: Richard Bentley, 1852. First Edition. Small Octavo. Hard Cover. Very Good [10] 388 + [2] pp. Spine uniformly darkened; Original marbled boards lightly bumped and worn at corners; triple ruled in blind; endpapers professionally replaced. A Very Good copy of a very scarce early history of travel to the West Coast, lacking port. frontis that is present in some copies.

One of the premier bibliographers of Americana described it thus: "On this perilous 1850 trip undertaken for sheer adventure by two young English sportsmen, two of their seven companions perished; the survival of any was a miracle" [Howes C-548]. "Henry Coke arrived in Saint Louis in May of 1850, having traveled from England by way of the West Indies. He sailed up the Missouri as far as Mormon Winter Quarters and followed the north bank of the Platte to the Sweetwater River, then crossed over South Pass, reaching The Dalles in Oregon in October. He then sailed to Hawaii and later returned to the United States by way of San Francisco. He devotes most of his book to recounting his experiences while crossing the plains." [Wagner-Camp 211]. Henry Stevens' catalogue of 'Rare Americana' listed a copy as "very scarce" [1999]. Finally, it is referenced, with excerpts, in Mattes' fine annotated bibliography Platte River Road Narratives [761], having examined copies as the Newberry Library in Chicago and at the Nebraska State Historical Society collection in Lincoln.